Dynamic Flying for Druid Flight Form Introduced in The War Within Update

Moving into day two of BlizzCon 2023, the WoW: Deep Dive panel is just getting started. Today, we're going to dive into all the exciting highlights of the upcoming expansion, The War Within! The panel is being led by Game Director Ion Hazzikostas, who will give us a deeper insight into the new features and content coming to World of Warcraft.

The War Within: Delves

One of the most anticipated features of The War Within expansion is the introduction of Delves. Delves are a new type of outdoor endgame content that offers a structured and immersive experience for players who enjoy exploring and unraveling mysteries in the open world. Unlike traditional dungeons, Delves are not focused solely on defeating bosses. Instead, they provide a seamless extension of the open world, allowing players to immerse themselves in a true open-world style content while still offering rewarding loot and treasures.

There will be twelve delves planned, each themed around different ecological zones in the game. Players will have the opportunity to explore these delves and discover the mysteries hidden within. Some delves may even require a bit of extra effort to find, adding an extra layer of excitement and challenge for adventurers.

As part of the endgame pillar, Delves will be tied into seasons. This means that the difficulty and rewards of Delves will increase over time, providing a change of pace and exciting new challenges for players. Additionally, each season will introduce a new NPC companion, starting with Brann Bronzebeard in Season One. These companions will not only serve as narrative hooks but also assist players in solving puzzles and complementing their gameplay style.

• • Treasures and Rewards

Delves offer more than just thrill and adventure. Players will have the chance to discover chests within the delves that may require keys obtained from other activities outside the delves themselves. This allows Delves to complement the rest of the open-world content, rather than becoming a repetitive grind like traditional dungeons. Additionally, Delves will offer a plethora of cosmetic rewards, including silly hats like mushrooms and candles. Players will also have the opportunity to obtain a customizable flying machine mount, exclusive to Delves.

Warbands: Account-Wide Convenience

The War Within introduces a new system called Warbands, aimed at providing account-wide convenience for players who have multiple characters. This system addresses the issues of easily transferring currency between alts and eliminates the need for clunky solutions like mailing items to oneself or using vendors. With Warbands, players will have access to an account-wide bank and a giant reagent tab, making it easier to manage resources and craft items using any of their characters.

Warbound Until Equipped items, a new item type, can be taken by other characters on the account for their use. These items are similar to account-bound items but become soulbound to the character once used. They drop as personal loot at a slightly lower item level to help players gear up their alts without funneling power to their mains.

Transmog will also be acquired warband-wide, allowing players to unlock transmog items for all their characters. This means that a Mage can unlock Plate items in their collection, which can then be used by their Warrior without the need to refarm the armor type. Additionally, reputations and renown progress will be account-wide, creating a seamless progression experience across all characters on the account.

• • Other Warband Features

Warbands will also bring other quality of life improvements, such as unlocking flight paths across all characters. The progress of the Season One Delve companion, Brann Bronzebeard, will be shared throughout the warband, eliminating the need to gear him up multiple times. Achievements will also be account-wide, similar to how many of them already are. The character select screen will be revamped to feature all of the player's characters, even those on different servers.

Hero Talents: Empowering Class Fantasies

The War Within raises the level cap by 10, unlocking 10 new talent points for players to customize their characters. However, instead of adding a couple more rows to the existing talent trees, which could potentially break existing combinations, the expansion introduces a new system called Hero Talents. These talents are inspired by class fantasies and iconic heroes from World of Warcraft's history.

Hero talents provide a flexible and deep power customization system. Players will have the Hero Talent tree fully unlocked by level 80, allowing them to choose between different hero specs and choice nodes. For example, a Balance Druid can choose between Keeper of the Grove, focused on treants, or Elune's Chosen, which enhances lunar abilities. These talents will nudge players' gameplay in specific directions, allowing them to further specialize their characters' abilities and playstyle.

This new system of hero talents will be available for testing in the alpha version of the game, which is set to be released in the Spring of 2024. This early testing phase will provide players with ample time to get familiar with the new talents and provide valuable feedback to the development team.

Allied Race: Earthen

The War Within introduces a new allied race called the Earthen. Unlike previous allied races, unlocking the Earthen will not require grinding reputation or completing lengthy questlines. Instead, players will meet the Earthen and earn their trust by progressing through the campaign. Once earned, the Earthen will become available as a playable race for both the Alliance and the Horde.

The Earthen will have access to every class except Druid, Demon Hunter, and Evoker. This new race adds more diversity and options for players to choose from when creating new characters.

Dragonriding: Dynamic Flight

A much-loved feature introduced in the Dragonflight expansion was dynamic flight, which allowed players to ride and control dragons. In The War Within, dynamic flight becomes the new standard for flying in World of Warcraft. Most mounts will be compatible with dynamic flight, bringing a new level of freedom and immersion to players' flying experience.

While dynamic flight is the default flying mode, players will still have the option to toggle traditional flying if they prefer. To unlock dynamic flight, players will need to complete the campaign in The War Within, without any additional reputation requirements. This change provides players with more flexibility and choice in how they navigate the skies of Azeroth.

To ensure a seamless transition to the new flying system, most of the bonuses gained from old dragonriding glyphs will become default bonuses in the future. Players won't need to collect these glyphs again, making the shift from traditional flying to dynamic flight a smooth and enjoyable experience.

PvP and Gameplay/Interface Updates

The War Within introduces a new 10v10 PvP map called Ringing Deeps, where players will fight over resources while also battling for control of a central point that influences the momentum of the match. This new map adds exciting gameplay opportunities and strategic challenges for PvP enthusiasts. Additionally, the expansion brings various updates to the spellbook, quest log, and user interface, improving the overall gameplay experience and accessibility for all players.

Cross-realm guilds will also be introduced with The War Within, allowing players to create and join guilds regardless of their server or faction. This change promotes inclusivity and makes it easier for players to play with friends and engage in high-level content, such as Day 1 Mythic raiding.

• • Conclusion

The War Within expansion brings a wealth of exciting features and updates to World of Warcraft. From the immersive outdoor endgame content of Delves to the convenience of the Warbands system, players will have new ways to enhance their gameplay experience. The introduction of hero talents empowers class fantasies, while the addition of the Earthen allied race adds more diversity to character creation. Dynamic flight and PvP enhancements further expand the possibilities for player interactions and progression. Get ready to embark on a new adventure and experience the epic journey of The War Within!